Justice Tanko Mohammed promises to stand down if Onnoghen is cleared by CCT

ACTING chief judge of Nigeria Justice Tanko Mohammed has declared that he will stand down from his position if the substantive holder Justice Walter Onnoghen is cleared by the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) and allowed to resume duty.

In January this year, President Muhammadu Buhari suspended the embattled Justice Onnoghen and replaced him with Justice Tanko Mohammed, who was sworn-in as the acting chief judge of Nigeria (CJN). Over recent months, Justice Onnoghen has been involved in intense political jockeying with the government that involved him being charged before the CCT with false asset declaration.

On Friday, Justice Onnoghen appeared before the CTT to answer the charges in what has become a messy case involving dozens of law suits. Both justices Onnoghen and Mohammed have been queried by the Nigerian Judicial Council (NJC) over their role on the saga that is seen to undermine the role of the body, which is supposed to have the final say in all judicial matters.

Responding to the NJC query, Justice Mohammed said he would step aside once the CCT or the Appeal Court reverses Justice Onnoghen’s suspension. In his letter, he pointed out that President Buhari does not need the permission of the NJC to appoint an acting chief justice of Nigeria, adding that it only needs to be consulted only when a substantive CJN is being appointed or re-appointed.

Justice Mohammed said: “In my respectful view, the National Judicial Council has no role to play in the appointment of an acting chief justice of Nigeria in the first instance, that is to say on first appointment. The council comes in where the appointment as the acting CJN is to be renewed or extended and I humbly refer to Section 231(4) of the 1999 constitution.

“It was for the larger interest of the judiciary and the constitutionality that I accepted to be sworn in as acting CJN with the conviction that if the order of January 23, 2019 is eventually set aside, the status quo would be restored. But before it is set aside, there should be no vacuum in the office of the CJN and the chairman of the NJC.

“On January 25, 2019, I was summoned to the Aso Villa at the instance of the President. Prior to the summons, I was not aware of the fact that the Code of Conduct Tribunal made any order on January 23, 2019.

“Furthermore, beyond what I read in the newspapers and watched on the television just like any other Nigerian, I was not privileged to see any of the processes filed by the parties before the tribunal, hence, I could not really appreciate the merit or demerit of divergent positions. On the 25th day of January, the president swore me in as the acting CJN and not as the substantive CJN.

"Justice Walter Onnoghen remains the CJN until he is removed from office in accordance with the provision of the constitution. He is only suspended.”

He added that he was a member of the NJC panel that removed Justice Obisike Orji of the Abia State High Court for accepting to be sworn-in as chief judge by the Abia State government without a recommendation of the NJC but added that his own case was different because he was only appointed as an acting CJN. Justice Muhammad appealed to the NJC to throw aside the petition written against him by the group Centre for Justice and Peace Initiative.

It had written a petition to the NJC, demanding that the council remove Justice Muhammad as a justice of the Supreme Court. They said Justice Muhammad was compromised by allowing himself to be sworn-in by the president without recourse to the NJC.